Anger at plan to drop lifeboat maroon use

The wailing of air raid sirens may return to British coastal towns, but to announce the launch of the lifeboat rather than enemy raids after the tradition of firing maroon flares was curtailed on safety grounds.

For a century or more "maroons" have been used to summon crews, make sure other harbour users know to get out of the lifeboat's way, and give succour to those needing rescue.

Though they are aimed out to sea and designed to explode 300m (1,000ft) up, the RNLI is concerned they may be a danger to the public if they veer off course or if casings hit a passer-by as they fall back to earth.

The charity is testing the use of air raid sirens and gas-powered crow scarers - to the dismay of some volunteers.

James Robertson, 68, operations manager at Weymouth lifeboat station in Dorset, said: "A lot of people like to hear the maroons because they like to know when the lifeboat is going out to sea so they can have us in their thoughts. When the maroon goes off it immediately raises the awareness of the RNLI, which relies on donations."

He insisted maroons were not a danger. "The spent aluminium casing doesn't plummet to earth like a stone, it falls like a leaf. I have had the odd report over the years of the odd tube landing on Weymouth beach but they have never struck or hurt anyone, to my knowledge."

The RNLI said the maroon rockets would still be used but only as a backup to the pager system now employed to summon crews. Spokeswoman Tamsin Thomas said that although nobody had been hurt by them, there had been a number of near-misses. "We had one last year where a maroon misfired at St Agnes in Cornwall, and instead of going straight up it veered in another direction."